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What's the earliest I can get France Surrender in the 1914 Campaign? I've captured Paris on Turn 3, but I can't seem to turn this into a French Surrender no matter what I do. I've played through to Middle 1915 and they're bleeding NM and troops but I think best case is end of 1915.

Whats the earliest people have managed? What can I do to achieve the victory as early as possible, I've tried various things to no avail yet.

Hi - the rules on surrender are spelled out in the Manual in section 6.6.1. France has two alternate capitals in Bordeaux and Marseille (that's what "Alternate" means on the map besides these two cities). What is probably happening in your game is that because Paris fell very early (I have never heard of it falling on turn 3), France's national morale was more than high enough to survive the loss of Paris and the capital moved to Bordeaux. France will probably surrender after you have captured both Bordeaux and Marseille and it will definitely surrender once its National Morale falls to 0%.

Yes - the capital did move to Bordeaux. I've tried to race to bordeaux but havent been able to get there quickly in any sort of fighting shape. Getting NM down to 0% has been a real challenge too. I'm relatively new to the game Im wondering if there are some strategies or tactics I am missing.

gmicheliv wrote: Tue Dec 30, 2025 6:38 pm Yes - the capital did move to Bordeaux. I've tried to race to bordeaux but havent been able to get there quickly in any sort of fighting shape. Getting NM down to 0% has been a real challenge too. I'm relatively new to the game Im wondering if there are some strategies or tactics I am missing.

Normally the fall of France only happens after a long campaign with massive casualties on the French side which drives down their national morale. If the fall of Paris did not push France into surrender, then there no other shortcut. However, France (like all other majors) loses NM points every turn for every resource occupied by the Central Powers (12 NM for a town, 15 for fortified town, 25 for a city). If Paris has fallen and most of eastern France is under CP occupation, then France is probably losing 300 - 500 NM points every turn due to this factor alone. You might want to just sit on your gains in France and let this factor drive their NM to zero while you turn more of your attention to Russia or the UK. You will have to defeat one of those other two majors as well to win the campaign.

That is good advice, thank you. I think I'm about to force their surrender in 1915 now that I took their second capital and NM is at 20%.

What is Russia doing while you are focusing all this effort on France? I assume this is SP, don't think any competent player would allow you to take Paris in three turns.

This is against the AI, I'm not very good. Russia is mostly just throwing itself against my defenses in east Prussia and Galicia.